The kids and I love our little outings. Everyone's favorite exhibit is the penguins. They are so doggone cute and friendly. The kids love it when the penguins swim right up to the glass. The Akron zoo is really nice because it is set up for children. It's not terribly large so little legs don't get too tired walking around. It also has lots of little areas for the kids to play, so we look at some animals and then stop to play for a little bit. Here are some photos from a few of our trips.
Riley enjoys the rock climbing wall by the jelly fish exhibit. She doesn't make it very far, but she has fun trying.
The kids would ride the train all day if I would let them. I'm thinking of setting up a chore chart and some allowance to let them earn their rides.
"Dude, I gotta get me one of these!"
"Cheers!" On this particular day, it was cold and rainy. We doubled the attendance when we showed up. It was really nice to practically have the place to ourselves. This area of the zoo has two cabins with play utensils. I had to drag the kids away from here after some extended play time.
"Anybody want some coffee?"
Here are the kids at the jellyfish exhibit. Look for Riley's "happy hands." She does this when she gets really excited. About halfway through the video you can hear Colin saying "Mom." He has a really distinct way of saying it so that I immediately know it's my child calling.
I think our next zoo trip will be back up to the Cleveland Zoo. I want to take the kids there again midweek before school lets out so it won't be so crowded. Our last trip to the Akron Zoo was on a Friday, and it was packed with kids on field trips. At one of the play areas designed for little ones, the big kids were getting a little rough and "moving" the smaller kids out of the way. The chaperones were standing quite a ways away and not paying any attention. Lucky for my children, they have a mother who is also a teacher and therefore has no reservations about verbally reprimanding other people's kids. I'm sure this habit will humiliate them some day. At any rate, I'm looking forward to some more trips to the zoo.
I took Riley's toddler bed out of her room and put it in Colin's because there's more room in there and he's going to use it eventually. He took one look at it and assumed it was his to use now. Jeff and I have talked before about Colin moving out of the crib. We'd joked that we'd keep him in his crib until he was twelve because he'd never stay in a bed. When I took him upstairs for his afternoon nap, he ran to his toddler bed and made snoring noises. I thought, what the heck, why not give him a chance. I put him down in the toddler bed and gave him a little talk. It went something like, "Big boys stay in their big boy beds. Boys who get out of their beds have to go back to their baby beds. You don't want to sleep in a baby bed do you? No. You're a big boy." He looked at me very intently through this lecture, pointed at the crib and said very seriously, "Baby bed noooo." He stayed in his bed the whole time. We decided to try it that night again after repeating the little pep talk, and once again he stayed glued to the bed. It's been four nights, and he's still in the toddler bed. I'm pretty proud of him. I'm also pretty relieved because his crib has just been recalled. 